ReRun 2.5.7.5

[MilesAhead]

Edit:  ReRun 2.5.7.5 is available on my new host
http://milesaheadsoftware.org/

Another bug fix.    I think I got it this time. 
Ok, but I really think I got it this time.   
I hope third time is a charm.  I think what happens is on shutdown if there is an error because autoit3 did not finish saving the file, then on startup, reading the file into an array and accessing from the end down to the first entry goes below zero.  In other words, there are not 3 lines in the file for each saved entry.  Now the program does a Mod(filelines, 3) check for a 0 remainder and the For loop bottoms out at 3 instead of 1.  This should prevent the possibility of accessing the array using a negative subscript.

I don't know why I didn't notice the loop ending at 1 earlier.  Only reason I can think of is it must have been a count from 1 to array length originally and I just changed it to count down, leaving the 1 as the lowest subscript in the loop.  The bright side is now it should just delete the data file if it is corrupt instead of trying to use it. 

[thancock20]

I just tested out the x64 version on Windows 7 Professional. It does detect both 32 and 64 bit programs, and there were no blank buttons between the others. So it was a success on my machine. 

[MilesAhead]

I just tested out the x64 version on Windows 7 Professional. It does detect both 32 and 64 bit programs, and there were no blank buttons between the others. So it was a success on my machine.  

Thank you very much for posting your findings.  

[cranioscopical]

The main thing I'm looking for in this test is if both 32 and 64 bit programs are detected when they have the focus, and that there aren't a bunch of blank buttons between the others when the panel gets filled.

Win 8.1 pro x64 - nothing detected (Autoit Spy sees what's open).

[cranioscopical]

Win 8.1 x86 sees Directory Opus and an ahk drop target. Doesn't see Firefox, Forte Agent email, TCC console… What it does see is placed consecutively starting from the right of the top row.

[cranioscopical]

It's working—I'm broken. Sorry, wasn't using it right. 

[MilesAhead]

It's working—I'm broken. Sorry, wasn't using it right.  

I was thinking of adding exclusion lists as I mentioned, with perhaps a manual override.  So you could hotkey click on a program to force it into the button list.  I thought also it might be cool to be able to edit the working directory and args fields.

The other thing that bothers me is as I have it now you launch one thing and it closes.  That's because all the stuff is picked up during the Gui creation.  It should be able to stay open like a launch bar.  But if I do that I think I may want to make it smaller.  Maybe 24 pixel buttons.  Just kicking ideas around.  But since it works pretty well I should just put this one out for now.

I have to see what I want to do for a permanent web hosting solution.
But all that's in the future.  For now I can just submit it to Softpedia.  

Thanks for trying the program out.  

[cranioscopical]

Thanks for trying the program out.

Thanks for providing it. 

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for trying the program out.

Thanks for providing it.  

You are most welcome.  

By the way if you have an idea for a more natural way of using it I would be interested.  I'm torn between the detection being automatic as it is now, since it is supposed to be to recover from accidental closure of a program, and the less resource intensive method of the user hotkeying the program with the focus into what would be in effect, a launch bar.

I took a look at the way Skrommel coded a similar program and I could see the difficulty involved in trying to get the info as the program is closing, say by clicking on the 'x'.  That's undoubtedly why he hid the window and set a timer to kill it if not overridden in 60 seconds.

The hotkey to add to a launchbar would be less resource intensive but would also lose the "accidental recovery" aspect.  Or perhaps it should be 2 modes and the user can select to use one or both.

I'm open to ideas.  What I can do is fairly limited.  But a different perspective is often enlightening.  

[MilesAhead]

ReRun 2.4.4.2 is available for download.  I have updated the first post with the link to the page.  When I can add new features I'll update to 2.5.  But that may be awhile. 

[MilesAhead]

I inadvertently uploaded a zip for ReRun that included an extra exe file.  I have corrected that on the site.  The current version is 2.5.0.0.

I think the first change I will make will be to create a quick and dirty semi-installer just to copy the 32 bit or 64 bit embedded code to the file ReRun.exe in the current folder, depending on the "bitness" of the user's OS.  Just so the user doesn't have to do it by hand.

So instead of the 2 exes the next upload will likely have one file ReRunSetup.exe or something similar. It will likely just use the AHK install command.  That should be the simplest way.

Edit:  Now the zip file includes a Readme.txt and one exe as described.  Just run ReRunSetup.exe in an empty folder.  It will copy either the 32 bit or 64 bit version of ReRun to ReRun.exe in that folder.  Note that it is set to not overwrite existing files.  To update a folder where ReRun.exe already lives, make sure you have quit ReRun.exe from the tray if running, then delete it, before running ReRunSetup.

Note that the Donate and Visit Hotkey Page commands now work, even if they are a bit slow to react.  The check for updates I may just remove as the maintenance is klunky.

Enjoy. 

[MilesAhead]

@cranioscopical  please try this one out on PS when you have a chance.  I changed it to get the root window.  This should work better with MDI applications.  I've attached a zip

Edit:  I found that some windows would return a NULL handle.  So I added a couple more calls to get the window handle if NULL.  Also if all else fails it seems to help to run the program As Administrator.

Edit:  Note that putting a shortcut in the StartUp folder set to Run As Administrator won't work without using the task scheduler.  It may if you have UAC enabled in which case you will have to click the prompt.  There seems to easy way around it so I just pinned to Taskbar and run in manually.  A pita but I try to avoid using the Task Scheduler.  There's just too many triggers and settings to go wrong.

Yet another Edit:    I think I have improved the window handle detection.  This should get rid of "blank button syndrome."  Please let me know if PS works with it. 

[MilesAhead]

I have uploaded the latest bug fix.  Hopefully this will cure "blank button syndrome" where some application windows returned NULL handles.

[cranioscopical]

On a first, quick, test it picked up

• Display Fusion
• Adobe Illustrator
• Photoshop
• InDesign
• Acrobat
• RightNote
• DOpus
• VPN client manager
• OED (Second Edition)

Pretty good!

[MilesAhead]

On a first, quick, test it picked up

• Display Fusion
• Adobe Illustrator
• Photoshop
• InDesign
• Acrobat
• RightNote
• DOpus
• VPN client manager
• OED (Second Edition)

Pretty good!

Thank you. 

[MilesAhead]

ReRun 2.5.2.0

I added a bit of error checking and some retries if the window handle is not retrieved successfully.  Also if the icon cannot be inserted in a button it now assumes it is because it is not a conventional exe with the icon resource embedded.  In such cases the button is disabled.  So there will still be the occasional blank button.  But they should be much more rare.

( See first post for download link )

[MilesAhead]

Changing one line of code when the Button Panel opens I think I have this much closer to how I envisaged it.  Now a Button for a detected program will not be displayed if the program is running.  The program info will still be saved to file as before.  This has the effect that when you start ReRun before opening the programs that were running when you closed ReRun(such as by shutting down or logging off) the Buttons for the programs running then will be displayed.

A bit wordy but say you have Notepad, Firefox and PCalc running.  Pressing F9 to display the Button Panel should not display any of them that are already running.  Close PCalc, then open the Button Panel.  It's button should be there.  This gets more to the purpose of restarting an accidentally closed program.

The buttons tend to move around a bit.  It may take a little getting used to.  But I think this is much more useful than the way it functioned previously.

If anyone would like to try it please feel free to download the attachment.  I haven't updated the readme yet.  For any who don't know just unzip to any empty folder and run ReRunSetup.exe.  It just extracts either a 32 or 64 bit version of ReRun depending on your OS.  You may have to set the Compatibility Mode to Run As Administrator on W8.

[MilesAhead]

v. 2.5.4.0    Added .ini file option ShowNotRunningOnly.  The default is True. When
              this option is True, Buttons for programs will only be shown if the program
              is not currently running.  This is the behavior I had in mind when I started.
              To use the old behavior quit ReRun and edit the .ini file.  Set
              ShowNotRunningOnly=False or =0.

              Note that if you open the ReRun Button Panel right after closing a program's
              window, the process may still be hidden in memory as it shuts down.  Closing
              the Button Panel and opening again should produce the expected results.

The new version is available on my site.  See first post for the link.

[cranioscopical]

This gets more to the purpose of restarting an accidentally closed program.

It's a better idea, I think.

With 2540 I get some blank buttons in unexpected slots. Is this what you meant by "The buttons tend to move around a bit."?

At the moment, starting from the right, top, I have 4 blanks, 1 icon, 1 blank, 2 icons.

[MilesAhead]

This gets more to the purpose of restarting an accidentally closed program.

It's a better idea, I think.

With 2540 I get some blank buttons in unexpected slots. Is this what you meant by "The buttons tend to move around a bit."?

At the moment, starting from the right, top, I have 4 blanks, 1 icon, 1 blank, 2 icons.

Yes.  It's sort of scatter shot in appearance.  As I create the buttons I check if the exe path exists, the icon and tooltip loaded ok, and if the program is running.  If any of those disqualifies it I just mark it disabled.  I tried keeping the buttons together by decoupling the loop.  But it's too tightly coupled in other places.  Kind of spaghetti code.

Plus with this scheme what will show up will vary depending on what is running.  There will always be a few things detected that aren't useful, like Windows Scripting Host.  But I figure with 32 buttons chances are the program or two you close and want back will be pulled into the net.

[cranioscopical]

Sounds good to me!
Is it worth sticking a constant placeholder icon where a slot is disabled, so there's a difference between disabled and unused?

[MilesAhead]

Sounds good to me!
Is it worth sticking a constant placeholder icon where a slot is disabled, so there's a difference between disabled and unused?

Do you have anything in mind?  I'm open to suggestions. 

[cranioscopical]

Do you have anything in mind?  I'm open to suggestions.

Well, in that case you can go and… oh, you mean for the icon 

Perhaps simply a red 'X' I don't know if any other software uses that as its icon. Or your own 'R' icon. If not that, perhaps just a solid block of colour— anything, really, to indicate  that those particular spaces are intentional.

[MilesAhead]

Well, in that case you can go and… oh, you mean for the icon

I hope i wasn't sideways.  Ouch.  

Please try this and see if it's an improvement.

Edit: I'm kinda' getting it.  I think it is much better than blanks.  Plus the R's make it look like a Brand or something.  It's easy to do since the icon is in the exe anyway.  

But let me know if you think it's too gaRish.  

Edit2:  I'm going to go ahead and upload.  I think it looks much better.  Thanks for the suggestion. 

[MilesAhead]

First post updated.  Added 'R' icon placeholder for empty button positions as cranioscopical suggested.